Empty Heaven

Paul Graham
Empty Heaven

Photographs: Paul Graham

Text: Paul Graham

Publisher: Scalo

96 pages

Pictures: 54

Year: 1995

Comments: Hardcover under dust jacket, 325 x 245 mm. First edition, 1995. Text in English and German in a loosing booklet. In good condition. Some stains in the first and last pages and some traces of manipulation. Some wear to the upper edges of the jacket. Biding is fragile.

Fifty years after the end of World War II, Paul Graham examines the effects of total defeat and unconditional surrender on contemporary Japanese culture. Focusing largely on the apparent contradictions which surround Japan's political and economic roles in the world, Paul Graham constructs powerfully evocative juxtapositions : a young girl and an elderly statesman, an atom flash and a candy wrapper, a section of a historic photo and a cherry blossom. Photographed in close-up, the tiniest details act as potent psychological triggers, investigating what seems to be a collective amnesia which has appeared in Japanese culture since the end of World War II.